White Men Play Cards While WOC Speak

And Rep. Melissa Hortman was not about to let it go unchallenged

During several speeches by several women of color on the floor of the Minnesota House of Representative a group of their fellow representatives, all white, were in the back room playing cards. The women were speaking about how important it was to be able to protest given the continued need to be able to fight for civil rights and the right to do so within our Constitution. The men didn’t feel it was important to hear their point of view.

So Democratic House leader Melissa Hortman called them out. They didn’t like it and told her to apologize. According to The Huffington Post, her response was the following,

“I am so tired of watching Rep. Susan Allen give an amazing speech, Rep. Peggy Flanagan give an amazing speech, watching Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn give an amazing speech, Rep. Rena Moran give the most heartfelt, incredible speech I’ve heard on this House floor, as long as I can remember, watching Rep. Ilhan Omar give an amazing speech … and looking around, to see, where are my colleagues? And I went in the retiring room, and I saw where a bunch of my colleagues were. And I’m really tired of watching women of color, in particular, being ignored. So, I’m not sorry.”